Johnson's Garden Party

We were in New York last weekend, for the annual Haters Ball, and more on that in an upcoming post, and we were staying on Seventh Avenue, with a view of the Garden from our front door. So after Cuse had blown out 12th ranked California on Thursday night, and without much in the way of expectations, I went to the box office on Friday, and bought three seats high up in the Garden. We waited for the preliminary game to conclude, and as we walked the block or so from hotel to the Garden, it seemed like much of the crowd was arriving with us, for the main attraction, for the game everyone wanted to see -- unranked Cuse playing the defending national champs, fourth ranked Carolina.

I won't bother with the game recap, as everyone on the planet already knows that Cuse blew the TarHeels away with a 22-1 run to open the second half. Wes Johnson dazzled everybody who saw him that night, with a double double, and an inside-outside game reminiscent of another small forward who also celebrated his coming out party in Madison Square Garden. On Thursday, he had six blocks against Cal, and we saw how that happened, as he skied to take rebounds away from Carolina's bigger front line. He hit a dagger three in the second half run that vaulted Cuse to a seventeen point lead Carolina could never really challenge. But my favorite play of the night was when he was back alone, defending against a 2 on 1 break, and instead of trying to draw a charge, or block a layup, and ending up surrendering a three-point play, he poked the ball away on the dribble, prevented UNC from scoring on the break, and forced them to set up against the 2-3, which by them had become impenetrable.

The Garden is a great spot for a coming out party. Forget about all the media attention that is focused on that venue, as a result of which Johnson and the Orange became the favorite flavors of ESPN and the NY papers, at least for the weekend. What I liked was the crowd. The place was loud and electric all night. In the first half, when Cuse and Carolina were back and forth, and the game still close, both teams' fans made themselves heard. By the second half, when it was all Orange, the crowd chanted "Let's Go Orange!" and "Overrated!", relentlessly. I love the Dome, especially when the Dome gets loud, and the Garden never reached the deafening levels one encounters when the crowd pushes 30,000 and beyond. But the Garden crowd stayed on its feet, and kept cheering long after the game had become a runaway, and there was no doubt about the outcome. Maybe that had something to do with beer sales continuing in the second half. I know that the kids sitting below us, who wanted to hate on Lemoyne with us, had reached a state of loud but congenial inebriation; we exited before they turned hostile or sloppy, although it took seven or eight handshakes and hugs before we could manage to leave.

Here's the best statistic of the young season. Cuse has won its first five games, and in those five games, they have had five different leading scorers. Some are predictable, like Johnson and Rautins. Some we'd like to see more often, like AO. But how about Jardine and Triche leading the way against Cal and Cornell? I hate to keep bringing up '03, but that year we had all the starters (not including Forth, of course), and even Edelin off the bench, leading the team on different nights throughout the season. It makes it tougher for opponents to shut them down. Right now, my biggest fear is that they'll climb too high in the rankings, because between now and the start of conference play, the only really tough game they face is Florida on a neutral court. It's good they lost to Lemoyne; hopefully that will remind everyone they aren't invincible. But it wouldn't be a bad thing to lose a game, or even to win one late, say from the foul line. There haven't even been any close finishes as yet. But in the meantime, I'm thinking I'd like to return to the Garden in March. Jonny who?